Today's News

Two of the premier Class A softball programs in East Tennessee met for their annual battle in the regional tournament Monday evening. It was the sixth meeting in the last seven seasons between Coalfield and Midway in the region tourney, and the end of the season was hanging in the balance.

With their seasons riding in the balance, two good teams met at Oliver Springs’ Arrowhead Park Tuesday evening and in the end the Rockwood Tigers would use a two-out RBI single from Hayden Freels in the top of the seventh inning to pick up a 4-3 victory over Oliver Springs in the opening round of the Region 2-A Tournament.

For years, many have recognized the extreme complexity of the Oak Ridge Reservation with regard to environmental management activities and challenges.

The complexity includes a diversity of waste products disposed of and treated in a myriad of ways in a setting where there is abundant rainfall and nearby population centers. This situation is further complicated by the complex geology of the site and the resulting hydrologic conditions.

By RON WOODY
Roane County Executive
Y-12 involves much more than maintaining the nation’s nuclear stockpile.

Work completed in the uranium processing facility will include dismantlement and disposition, material recycle and recovery, nuclear nonproliferation, producing fuel for naval reactors, and supplying medical isotopes that will be used in cancer treatment.

Opponents of the new Y-12 uranium processing facility are simply misleading the public in referring to this facility as a “bomb plant.”

TVA and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency are inviting the public to the fifth in a series of six workshops on the restoration of the river system affected by the December 2008 fly ash spill at the TVA Kingston Fossil Plant in Roane County.

The workshops provide information on the River System Engineering Evaluation and Cost Analysis Report on the Kingston recovery project.

By KEN PAULSON
First Amendment Center
Governments like to keep things secret. To be fair, some government officials see the benefit of the free flow of information, but governments reflexively tend to keep things from public view, particularly if the information may raise questions about government conduct.

Of course, our guarantees of freedom of speech and press were instituted in part to keep an eye on people in power. If we’re to assess effectively how well our public servants are doing their jobs, we need access to information.

Kingston City Council members want to make sure no one gets too hot about cold beer.

The council delayed another decision this month about a change in the city’s beer ordinance, which currently requires establishments that have retail beer sales to have a 250-foot distance, lot line to lot line, from “churches, schools, or other places of public gathering.”

The city council’s proposed amendment to the ordinance would change it such that the 250-foot measure was from building to building — rather than lot line to lot line.

Officials held a “power up” ceremony on Tuesday to celebrate the new solar farm at the East Tennessee Technology Park.
Restoration Services Inc. self-financed the 1.3 acre project as part of its Brownfield-to-Brightfield initiative.